Help my new pup become an Alpha Male

[brokensvt]

Help my new pup become an Alpha Male

Hi all! You may remember some time back my creating a wolf for the first time. He grew into a great level 30 Fury dueler. After 3 subsequent rebuilds he's more than great, he's a seriously competent dueler who doesn't lose often. This brings me to two days ago.

Queen Mebd and I were sitting around theorycrafting his new MLD WW barb, when the bug "bit" me to build an MLD of my own. After scrapping through mules, I decided it was high time to put to use an old pelt of mine. I don't recall all of the stats, but I know it's a 2 Druid/3 Rabies/2os green antlers, level 42 requirement. I also had a JToD, a 3os 100 life Light Plate, and some other odds and ends. His "final" gear looks something like this:

Said pelt, 2x 5/5 poison facets.
Said armor, 3x 5/5 poison facets(sub in Shaftstop/Duress DS)
String of Ears
3 SS/100 life amulet
2x SoJ(sub in Ravenfrost/Dwarf as needed)
Sanctuary Hyperion
Aldur boots(50 life, 50 fire res)
Trang's gloves
95 IAS/73 Cold res/73 Light res/13 other res Naga(5 frame Rabies)

Switch:
Jeweller's tower of deflecting, 3x 5/5 poison facets
6os Crowbill, 6x 5/5 poison facets

Some sub-in gear of note:
Jalal's-Thul(sorry cold sorcs)
Jalal's-Ort(sorry FoH)
Shaftstop, as mentioned above
Angelic rings and amulet
Ravenfrost(s)
Dwarf(s)
Tgods
Snowclash

I'm lacking 4 SS gc's, but so far I'm doing 29k Rabies on the primary, 40k on switch. I have something like this for skills:

Rabies-max
Poison creeper-max
Lycan-12 base
Wolf-1
Spirit wolves-1
Ravens-1
Oak sage-1
Prereq's-1

I'll have 2 more skill points to spend. With SoJ's on I have ~3k AR, which just doesn't cut it obviously. With one Ravenfrost, I hit 6.6k AR. I believe I'll be needing much more AR to deal with pubby paladins and barbs. I think I have nearly enough resist stack to deal with MOST cold/lightning in normal mode, but will need to stack more for NM duels. Mebd and I have discussed trying a Plaguebearer with a 5/5 facet on switch, rather than the 30/30 axe.

I'm looking for ANY advice you folks would be willing to lend, as this is my first time dabbling with Rabies as a skill/build. Any gear ideas, dueling tactics, etc.

 

[Jary]

wow dude, that's pretty awesome. 30-40k rabies, I'd be scared to duel you with my lvl 89 >.<

I think, at lvl 45, very few if any duelers'll survive 40k rabies :wink3: . Almost impossible when you dish out nearly peak damage and they only have a fraction of the health they'd have at ~lvl 90. Cool. In that case, I'd almost weigh like... the effectiveness of plaguebearer vs Naga. If the damage isn't really "amazingly" greater, I'd deffinitely take the faster weapon with the better range, whichever that be 'cause what's point of rabies if ya' can't hit em

 

[Verashiden]

Um... Plague's +skill won't affect Rabies bit Rate on switch. You'd have to use it as your biting weapon to get the effect.

Also, for your main weap. I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest Oath Runesword. It hits 7 Frame Rabies and 9/5 Fury. Not bad and it'll have less reqs than Naga since it's eth >.>.

Oh, and I'd suggest at least one point into Fury. It'll give you a backup attack in case they stack poison res and it takes awhile to kill them via Rabies. That Naga could be used for FoH and Cold Sorcs though. Nice res .

I'd also keep IK boots in stash. the Extra AR will come in handy should you not need the res of Aldur Boots.

 

[callmejay]

heh thats some kicka$$ rabies damage for sure.

i will add if your a rabies primary,definately look into getting some frw gear(charms/circlet)ive found that i use much more frw then dmg gear on my rabies ill check the level req on mine and see if its suitable for mld rabies

edit-just checked it ..its lvl 52 req,what a shame..the mods were pretty juicy

+1ss
visionary
15all res
34life
30frw

lacks skills but with that dmg...might ve been useful

good luck with your rabies

 

[brokensvt]

Just a quick update. So far the druid is rocking most MLD games, even taking out many high level raiders. Characters with good poison stack(paladins) sometimes take two bites. Really good MLD's rarely require more than one bite, and crummy pub duelers don't require 1/4 of my damage.

I find that using two Ravenfrosts is nice, allowing me to surpass 10k AR which is typically more than enough. I picked up two more Skill GC's(both 30 life-yay), so I now do 31k on the primary switch using Ravenfrosts, and 40k still on the swap. If I put on two SoJ's I can top 36k/47k, but have trouble hitting. I guess getting two more skill GC's will be my priority. The advantages of being a wolfie are great at this level, as most hammerdins are having trouble with me if I continually re-shift, plus the Poison Novas from my gear are evil each time

 

[Verashiden]

What weap did you finally decide on using?

 

[brokensvt]

I'm using the 95 IAS/resist Naga as my primary. I was considering the use of Plaguebearer on switch, but then it was pointed out that the +skills from it won't affect the enemy upon switching. I have an eth Oath SC stashed away that I may try out as a Fury backup, though with only one point in Fury and no max damage/ed from gear I suspect it will not be worth trying out.

I tend to charge up Feral vs. a fast opponent, giving me an edge. I'd love to swap in some r/w, but hate the idea of losing life at this point. He's only got ~300 more life than my 30 Fury and that bothers me a bit.